NPD September: PS3 on Top, Beatles Beat Cobain

The combination of a new hardware model and lower price made PlayStation 3 the best-selling home game machine in the U.S. for the month of September 2009, the NPD Group reported today.

NPD added that The Beatles: Rock Band outsold Guitar Hero 5, saying that MTV’s Beatles game sold 595,000 units in total across the three platforms while Activision’s sequel sold 499,000 copies in total across its four platforms (which include PlayStation 2).

In an email, MTV said that it sold 100,000 downloads of the song “All You Need Is Love” in September.

Total sales of videogames in the U.S. were $1.28 billion dollars, up 1% from last September.

“On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in an emailed statement. “The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8% from last September.”

In other words, all the consoles cost less, but games — like the $250 Beatles Rock Band special edition — cost more.

U.S. Hardware Sales, September 2009:

Nintendo DS 524.2K

PlayStation 3 491.8K

Wii 462.8K

Xbox 360 352.6K

PSP 190.4K

PlayStation 2 146.0K

The Top 10 software sales, plus more analysis from NPD and Wired.com, are below.

Top 10 Software Sales, September 2009:

Halo 3: ODST (360, Microsoft) 1,520,000

Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 442,900

Madden NFL 10 (360, Electronic Arts) 289,600

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS, Nintendo) 258,100

The Beatles: Rock Band (360, MTV) 254,000

Madden NFL 10 (PS3, Electronic Arts) 246,500

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360, Activision Blizzard) 236,000

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, Square Enix) 212,500

Guitar Hero 5 (360, Activision Blizzard) 210,800

The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii, MTV) 208,600

“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively” on a per-week basis, said Frazier.

Still, it’s telling that with PlayStation 3 having a new model and a price drop for the entire month of September versus Wii dropping price by $50 four days before the end of the month, PS3 only managed to squeak out a win with less than 30,000 more units sold.

A big month for both consoles, to be sure, and a welcome sight for Sony — but nothing that anyone should be calling a reversal of fortune.

Meanwhile, constant readers will surely point out that Beatles has sold a few more units on Xbox 360 than it has on Wii, contrary to my post-E3 prediction. Give it time, for Christmas is coming and Nintendo’s business has been much more affected by the seasons as of late.